Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning that Denver's bike-friendly policies are actually part of a hidden plan to turn the city over to the control of the U.N.

Sometimes in politics it's better to let your opponent have the spotlight, mostly when said opponent is frantically shoving his foot in his mouth.

Such is the case in Colorado's gubernatorial campaign, where Democrat and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper is looking at a field of Republican candidates vying to win their party's Aug. 10 primary. One of those potential opponents is Tea Party favorite Dan Maes, who got some press this week over his warning that Hickenlooper's push for a more bike-friendly Denver and the city's membership in the United Nations program the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) is part of a "well-disguised" plan to turn Denver into "a United Nations community."

You see, all this time we thought bikes offered a more environmentally friendly and healthy way for people to get around town. It turns out that bikes are tools used by socialists bent on turning over American sovereignty to the blue-helmed jackboots at the United Nations.

Maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor's efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. Now he realizes "that's exactly the attitude they want you to have." "This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms," Maes said. He added: "These aren't just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor. These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to."

Maes said in a later interview that he was referring to Denver's membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, an international association that promotes sustainable development and has attracted the membership of more than 1,200 communities, 600 of which are in the United States.

Jeebus, there are 600 other American communities involved with the ICLEI? Is it too late to save our country from the evil scourge of the bicycle!? Where's Sarah Palin when you need her?

Hickenlooper's PR department would do well to push out Maes's comments as far and as wide as they can — Maes is leading in the polls over former Congressman Scott McInnis. Hickenlooper won't have to work very hard to make Maes sound like a total nutjob.